The Silver Canyon: A Tale of the Western Plains Read online

  CHAPTER ELEVEN.

  BEARS AND FOR BEARS.

  Bart was sufficiently observing to notice, even amidst the many calls hehad upon his attention, that Dr Lascelles grew more and more absorbedand dreamy every day. When they first started he was always on thealert about the management of the expedition, the proportioning of thesupplies and matters of that kind; but as he found in a short time thatBart devoted himself eagerly to everything connected with the successfulcarrying out of their progress, that Joses was sternly exacting over theother men, and that Maude took ample care of the stores, he very soonceased troubling himself about anything but the main object which he hadin view.

  Hence it was then that he used to sling a sort of game-bag over hisshoulder directly after the early morning meal, place a sharp,wedge-like hammer in his belt, shoulder his double rifle, and go off"rock-chipping," as Joses called it.

  "I don't see what's the good of his loading one barrel with shot, MasterBart, for he never brings in no game; and as for the stones--well, Ihaven't seen a single likely bit yet."

  "Do you think he ever will hit upon a good mine of gold or silver,Joses?" said Bart, as they were out hunting one day.

  "Well, Master Bart, you know what sort of a fellow I am. If I'd gotfive hundred cows, I should never reckon as they'd have five hundredcalves next year, but just calculate as they wouldn't have one. Thenall that come would be so many to the good. Looking at it fairly, Idon't want to dishearten you, my lad, but speaking from sperience, Ishould say he wouldn't."

  "And this will all be labour in vain, Joses?"

  "Nay, I don't say that, Master Bart. He might find a big vein of goldor silver; but I never knew a man yet who went out in the mountainslooking for one as did."

  "But up northward there, men have discovered mines and made themselvesenormously rich."

  "To be sure they have, my lad, but not by going and looking for the goldor silver. It was always found by accident like, and you and me is muchmore like to come upon a big lead where we're trying after sheep or deerthan he is with all his regular trying."

  "You think there are mineral riches up in the mountains then?"

  "Think, Master Bart! Oh, I'm sure of it. But where is it to be found?P'r'aps we're walking over it now, but there's no means of telling."

  "No," said Bart thoughtfully, "for everything about is so vast."

  "That's about it, my lad, and all the harm I wish master is that he mayfind as much as he wants."

  "I wish he may, Joses," said Bart, "or that I could find a mine for himand Miss Maude."

  "Well, my lad, we'll keep our eyes open while we are out, only we haveso many other things to push, and want to push on farther so as to getamong better pasture for the horses. They don't look in such goodcondition as they did."

  There was good reason for this remark, their halting-places during thepast few days having been in very sterile spots, where the tallforbidding rocks were relieved by very little that was green, andpatches of grass were few.

  But these were the regions most affected by the Doctor, who believedthat they were the most likely ones for discovering treasure belongingto nature's great storehouse, untouched as yet by man. In these barrenwilds he would tramp about, now climbing to the top of some chine, nowletting himself down into some gloomy forbidding ravine, but alwayswithout success, there being nothing to tempt him to say, "Here is thebeginning of a very wealthy mine."

  Every time they journeyed on the toil became greater, for they were inmost inaccessible parts of the mountain range, and they knew by thecoolness of the air that they must now be far above the plains.

  Bart and Joses worked hard to supply the larder, the principal food theyobtained being the sage grouse and dusky grouse, which birds they foundto be pretty plentiful high up in the mountains wherever there was aflat or a slope with plenty of cover; but just as they were gettingterribly tired of the sameness of this diet, Bart made one morning alucky find.

  They had reached a fresh halting-place after sundown on the previousnight--one that was extremely attractive from the variety of the highground, the depths of the chasms around, and the beauty of the cedarsthat spread their flat, frond-like branches over the mountain-sides,which were diversified by the presence of endless dense thickets.

  "It looks like a deer country," Joses had said as they were tetheringthe horses amongst some magnificent grass.

  These words had haunted Bart the night through, and hence, at the firstsight of morning on the peaks up far above where they were, he had takenhis rifle and gone off to see what he could find.

  Three hours' tramp produced nothing but a glimpse of some mountain sheepfar away and at a very great height.

  He was too weary and hungry to think of following them, and wasreluctantly making for the camp, when all at once a magnificent deersprang up from amongst a thicket of young pines, and bounded off at anastounding rate.

  It seemed madness to fire, but, aiming well in front, Bart drew trigger,and then leaped aside to get free of the smoke. As he did so, he justcaught a glimpse of the deer as it bounded up a steep slope and the nextmoment it was gone.

  Bart felt that he had not hit it, but curiosity prompted him to followin the animal's track, in the hope of getting a second shot, and as heproceeded, he could not help wishing for the muscular strength of thesedeer, for the ground, full of rifts and chasms, over which he toiledpainfully in a regular climb, the deer had bounded over at full speed.

  It took him some time to get to the spot where he had last seen thedeer, when, to his intense surprise and delight, he found traces ofblood upon the stones, and upon climbing higher, he found his wayblocked by a chasm.

  Feeling sure that the animal would have cleared this at a bound, helowered himself down by holding on by a young pine which bent beneathhis weight. Then he slipped for a few feet, made a leap, and came downamongst some bushes, where, lying perfectly dead, was the most beautifuldeer he had ever seen.

  Unfortunately hunger and the knowledge that others are hungry interferewith romantic admiration, and after feasting his eyes, Bart began tofeast his imagination on the delight of those in the camp with theprospect of venison steaks. So, in regular hunter's fashion, heproceeded to partially skin and dress the deer, cutting off sufficientfor their meal, and leaving the other parts to be fetched by the men.

  There were rejoicings in camp that morning, and soon after breakfastBart started off once more, taking with him Joses, Juan, and Sam, all ofwhom were exceedingly willing to become the bearers of the meat in whichthey stood in such great need.

  The Doctor had gone off in another direction, taking with him Maude ashis companion, and after the little party had returned to the camp, Bartwas standing thoughtfully gazing at a magnificent eminence, clothedalmost to the top with cedars, while in its rifts and ravines weredark-foliaged pines.

  "I wonder whether we should find anything up there, Joses," said Bart.

  "Not much," said the frontier man. "There'd be deer, I daresay, if thesound of your rifle and the coming of the sheep hadn't sent them away."

  "Why should the sheep send them away?" asked Bart.

  "I don't know why they should," said Joses; "all I know is that they do.You never find black-tailed deer like you shot and mountain sheepliving together as neighbours. It arn't their nature."

  "Well, what do you say to taking our rifles and exploring?"

  "Don't mind," said Joses, looking round. "Horses are all right, andthere's no fear of being overhauled by Injuns up here, so let's go andtake Sam with us, but you won't get no more deer."

  "Well, we don't want any for a day or two. But why shouldn't I getanother?"

  "Because they lie close in the thickest part of the cover in the middleof the day, and you might pretty well tread upon them before they'dmove."

  They started directly after, and for about two hours did nothing butclimb up amidst cedar and pine forest. Sometimes amongst the trunks ofbig trees, sometimes down in gashes or gullies in the moun
tain-side,which were full of younger growths, as if the rich soil and pine seedshad been swept there by the storms and then taken root.

  "I tell you what it is, Master Bart," said Joses, suddenly coming to ahalt, to roll up and light his _cigarito_, a practice he never gave up,"it strikes me that we've nearly got to the end of it."

  "End of what?" asked Bart.

  "This clump of hills. You see if when we get to the top here, it don'tall go down full swoop like a house wall right bang to the plain."

  "What, like the place where the mountain sheep went down?"

  "That's it, my lad, only without any go up on the other side. Itstrikes me that we shall find it all plain on this side, and that if wecan't find a break in the wall with a regular gulch, we shall have to goback with our horses and waggon and try some other way."

  "Well, come along and let's see," said Bart; and once more they climbedon for quite half-an-hour, when they emerged from the trees on to arugged piece of open rocky plain, with scattered pines gnarled andtwisted and swept bare by the mighty winds, and as far as eye couldreach nothing but one vast, well-watered plain.

  "Told you so," said Joses; "now we shall either have to keep up here inthe mountain or go down among the Injuns again, just as the masterlikes."

  "Let's come and sit down near the edge here and rest," said Bart, whowas fascinated by the beauty of the scene, and, going right out upon ajutting promontory of stone, they could look to right and left at thegreat wall of rock that spread as far as they could see. In places itseemed to go sheer down to the plain, in others it was broken intoledges by slips and falls of rock; but everywhere it seemed to shut thegreat plain in from the west, and Bart fully realised that they wouldhave to find some great rift or gulch by which to descend, if theirjourney was to be continued in this direction.

  "How far is it down to the plain?" said Bart, after he had been feastinghis eyes for some time.

  "Four to five thousand feet," said Joses. "Can't tell for certain.Chap would fall a long way before he found bottom, and then he'd bounceoff, and go on again and again. I don't think the mountain sheep wouldjump here."

  As they sat resting and inhaling the fresh breeze that blew over thewidespreading plain, Bart could not help noticing the remains of a grandold pine that had once grown right at the edge of the stupendousprecipice, but had gradually been storm-beaten and split in its old agetill the trunk and a few jagged branches only remained.

  One of these projected from its stunted trunk close down by the roots,and seemed thrust out at right angles over the precipice in a way thatsomehow seemed to tempt Bart.

  He turned his eyes from it again and again, but that branch fascinatedhim, and he found himself considering how dangerous it would be, and yethow delightful, to climb right out on that branch till it bent and bent,and would bear him no further, and then sitting astride, dance up anddown in mid air, right over the awful depths below.

  So strange was the attraction that Bart found his hands wet withperspiration, and a peculiar feeling of horror attacked him; but whatwas more strange, the desire to risk his life kept growing upon him, andas he afterwards told himself, he would no doubt have made the madventure if something had not happened to take his attention.

  Joses was leaning back with half-closed eyes, enjoying his _cigarito_,and Bart was half rising to his knees to go back and round to where thebranch projected, just to try it, he told himself, when they heard ashout away to the left, and that shout acted like magic upon Bart.

  "Why, that's Sam," he said, drawing a breath full of relief, just as ifhe had awakened from some terrible nightmare.

  "I'd 'bout forgotten him," said Joses lazily. "Ahoy! Oho!--eh!" heshouted back. Then there was another shout and a rustling of bushes, agrunting noise, and Bart seized his rifle.

  "He has found game," he said.

  Then he nearly let fall his piece, and knelt there as if turned tostone, for, to his horror, he suddenly saw Sam down upon his hands andknees crawling straight out on the great gnarled branch that overhungthe precipice, keeping to this mode of progression for a time, and thenletting his legs go down one on each side of the branch, and hitchinghimself along, yelling lustily the while for help.

  "He has gone mad," cried Bart, and as he spoke he thought of his ownsensations a few minutes before, and how he had felt tempted to do thisvery thing.

  "No, he arn't," said Joses, throwing the remains of his _cigarito_ overthe precipice, and lifting his rifle; "he's got bears after him."

  Almost as he spoke the great rough furry body of an enormous black bearcame into sight, and without a moment's hesitation walked right outalong the branch after the man.

  "There's another," cried Bart, "shoot, Joses, shoot. I dare not."

  It seemed that Joses dare not either, or else the excitement paralysedhim, for he only remained like Bart, staring stupidly at the unwontedscene before them as a second bear followed the first, which, in spiteof Sam's efforts to get into safety, had overtaken him, crept right uponhim, and throwing its forepaws round him and the branches as well,hugged him fast, while the second came close up and stood there growlingand grunting and patting at its companion, who, fortunately for Sam, wasdriving the claws at the ends of its paws deeply into the gnarledbranch.

  "If I don't fire they'll kill him," muttered Joses, as the huge branchvisibly bent with the weight of the three bodies now upon it. "If Ikill him instead it would be a mercy, so here goes."

  He raised his rifle, took careful aim, and was about to draw thetrigger, but forbore, as just then the report of Bart's piece rang out,and the second bear raised itself up on its hind legs, while theforemost backed a couple of feet, and stood growling savagely with itshead turned towards where it could see the smoke.

  That was Bart's opportunity, and throwing himself upon his breast, andsteadying his rifle upon a piece of rock, he fired again, making theforemost bear utter a savage growl and begin tearing furiously at itsflank.

  Then Joses' rifle spoke, and the first bear reared up and fell overbackwards, a second shot striking the hindmost full in the head, and oneafter the other the two monsters fell headlong, the first seeming todive down, making a swimming motion with its massive paws, the secondturning over back downwards.

  They both struck the rock about fifty feet below the branch, and thisseemed to make them glance off and fly through the air at a fearfulrate, spinning over and over till they struck again at an enormousdistance below, and then plunged out of sight, leaving Bart sick withhorror to gaze upon the unfortunate Sam.